Permanent magnet having good thermal stability and method for manufacturing same

ABSTRACT

A thermally stable permanent magnet with reduced irreversible loss of flux and improved intrinsic coercivity iHc of 15KOe or more having the following composition: 
     
         (Nd.sub.1-α Dy.sub.α)(Fe.sub.1-x-y-z Co.sub.x B.sub.y 
    
      M z ) a   
     wherein M represents at least one element selected from the group consisting of Nb, Mo, Al, Si, P, Zr, Cu, V, W, Ti, Ni, Cr, Hf, Mn, Bi, Sn, Sb and Ge, 0.01≦x≦0.4, 0.04≦y≦0.20, 0≦z≦0.03, 4≦a≦7.5 and 0.03≦α≦0.40. This can be manufactured by (a) sintering an alloy having the above composition by a powder metallurgy method, (b) heating the sintered body at 750°-1000° C. for 0.2-5 hours, (c) slowly cooling it at a cooling rate of 0.3°-5° C./min to temperatures between room temperature and 600° C., (d) heating it at 540°-640° C. for 0.2-3 hours, and (e) rapidly cooling it at a cooling rate of 20°-400° C./min.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a permanent magnet alloy of theintermetallic compound type mainly composed of Nd and Fe, and moreparticularly to a Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet alloy having improved thermalstability.

Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet materials have been recently developed as newmaterials with higher magnetic properties than those of Sm-Co permanentmagnets.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 59-46008, 59-64733 and 59-89401, andJournal of Applied Physics, Vol. 55, No. 6, pp. 2083-2087 (1984)disclose that a magnet alloy having a composition of Nd₁₅ Fe₇₅ B₁₀corresponding to Nd(Fe₀.88 B₀.12)₅.7, for instance, has magneticproperties such as (BH)_(max) of about 35MGOe and iHc of about 10KOe,that the substitution of part of Fe with Co increases the Curietemperature of the magnet, and that the addition of Ti, Ni, Bi, V, Nb,Ta, Cr, Mo, W, Mn, Al, Sb, Ge, Sn, Zr or Hf leads to the increase inintrinsic coercivity iHc. The above maximum energy product (BH)_(max)(35MGOe) of such Nd-Fe-B alloys is much higher than those of rareearth-cobalt (R-Co) magnets which can be at most about 30MGOe.

These Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet alloys may be prepared by a powdermetallurgy method. Specifically, raw materials for the magnets aremelted in vacuum to form an ingot which is then crushed and pulverized,formed into a desired magnet shape in a magnetic field, sintered,heat-treated and then worked.

The sintering is performed in an inert gas such as Ar and He, inhydrogen or in vacuum at temperatures of 1050°-1150° C. The heattreatment conditions may vary depending on the types of rare earthelements used and the compositions of the magnets, but annealing isperformed usually at about 600° C. According to Sagawa, for instance,the annealing at 590°-650° C. provides high intrinsic coercivity iHc(nearly 12KOe). See J. Appl. Phys. 55(6), pp. 2083-2087 (1984).

However, Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet materials have extremely poorerthermal stability than conventional Sm-Co permanent magnets. Forinstance, when a magnet of Nd(Fe₀.92 B₀.08)₅.4 is heated to 140° C., itsintrinsic coercivity iHc irreversibly decreases by as much as about 65%.Thus, they have suffered from the problems that they cannot be assembledin automobiles and home electric appliances, and that they cannot beused in environments higher than room temperature.

OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide a Nd-Fe-Bpermanent magnet free from the abovementioned problems.

More particularly, an object of the present invention is to provide ananisotropic sintered Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet having improved thermalstability.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method ofmanufacturing a Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet having improved thermalstability.

Intense research in view of the above objects has resulted in thefinding that the addition of particular amounts of Dy and Co combinedwith a proper heat treatment serves to enhance the thermal stability ofNd-Fe-B permanent magnets. This finding forms a basis of the presentinvention.

That is, the permanent magnet having good thermal stability according tothe present invention has the composition: (Nd₁₋α Dy.sub.α)(Fe_(1-x-y-z)Co_(x) B_(y) M_(z))_(a) wherein M represents at least one elementselected from the group consisting of Nb, Mo, Al, Si, P, Zr, Cu, V, W,Ti, Ni, Cr, Hf, Mn, Bi, Sn, Sb and Ge, 0.01≦x≦0.4, 0.04≦y≦0.20,0≦z≦0.03, 4≦a≦7.5 and 0.03≦α≦0.40.

The method of manufacturing the above permanent magnet having goodthermal stability according to the present invention comprises the stepsof (a) sintering an alloy having the above composition by a powdermetallurgy method, (b) heating the sintered body at 750°-1000° C. for0.2-5 hours, (c) slowly cooling it at a cooling rate of 0.3°-5° C./minto temperatures between room temperature and 600° C., (d) heating it at540°-640° C. for 0.2-3 hours, and (e) rapidly cooling it at a coolingrate of 20°-400° C./min.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a view schematically showing a heat treatment patternaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a graph showing the relations between intrinsic coercivity iHcand irreversible loss of flux (at 200° C. and Pc=2) and heatingtemperatures (second heating step) for a (Nd₀.8 Dy₀.2)(Fe₀.86 Co₀.06B₀.08)₅.5 alloy;

FIG. 3 is a graph showing the relations between irreversible loss offlux (at Pc=2) and heating temperatures for a (Nd₀.8 Dy₀.2)(Fe₀.86Co₀.06 B₀.08)₅.5 alloy with various temperatures of the second heatingstep (460°-620° C.);

FIG. 4 is a graph showing the relations between irreversible loss offlux and heating temperatures for a (Nd₀.8 Dy₀.2)(Fe₀.86 Co₀.06B₀.08)₅.5 alloy (heated at 600° C. in the second heating step) atvarious permeance coefficients (Pc);

FIG. 5 is a graph showing the relations between irreversible loss offlux and heating temperatures for a (Nd₀.7 Dy₀.3)(Fe₀.92-x Co_(x)B₀.08)₅.5 alloy (x=0.04-0.14) at Pc=2;

FIG. 6 is a graph showing the relations between irreversible loss offlux (at 200° C. and Pc=2) and intrinsic coercivity iHc and the Cocontent (x) for a (Nd₀.7 Dy₀.3) (Fe₀.92-x Co_(x) B₀.08)₅.5 alloy(X=0.04-0.14);

FIG. 7 is a graph showing the relations between irreversible loss offlux (at Pc=2) and heating temperatures for a (Nd₀.6 Dy₀.4)(Fe₀.92-xCo_(x) B₀.08)₅.5 alloy (x=0.06-0.20) heated at 600° C. in the secondheating step;

FIG. 8 is a graph showing the relations between intrinsic coercivity iHcand irreversible loss of flux (at 200° C. and Pc=2) and temperatures ofthe second heating step for a (Nd₀.6 Dy₀.4)(Fe₀.86 Co₀.06 B₀.08)₅.5alloy; and

FIG. 9 is a graph showing 4πI-H curves for a (Nd₀.8 Dy₀.2)(Fe₀.86 Co₀.06B₀.08)₅.5 alloy at various temperatures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet according to the present invention has thefollowing composition:

    (Nd.sub.1-α Dy.sub.α)(Fe.sub.1-x-y-z Co.sub.x B.sub.y M.sub.z).sub.a

wherein M represents at least one element selected from the groupconsisting of Nb, Mo, Al, Si, P, Zr, Cu, V, W, Ti, Ni, Cr, Hf, Mn, Bi,Sn, Sb and Ge, 0.01≦x≦0.4, 0.04<y≦0.20, 0≦z≦0.03, 4≦a≦7.5 and0.03≦α≦0.40.

In the present invention, the substitution of Dy and Co for part of Ndand Fe, respectively and the addition of at least one element M selectedfrom the group consisting of Nb, Mo, Al, Si, P, Zr, Cu, V, W, Ti, Ni,Cr, Hf, Mn, Bi, Sn, Sb and Ge serve to remarkably improve the thermalstability of the Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet without greatly reducing aresidual magnetic flux density thereof.

First, part of Nd is substituted with Dy in a ratio of 0.03-0.40. Thesubstitution of Dy generally reduces the residual magnetic flux densityof the permanent magnet, but it increass its Curie temperature to someextent and its anisotropy field (H_(A)) and further its intrinsiccoercivity iHc, resulting in the remarkable increase in thermalstability. When the amount (α) of Dy substituted for Nd is lower than0.03, the object of the present invention of improving thermal stabilitycannot be achieved, and when it exceeds 0.40, it leads to extremedeterioration of magnetic properties due to the decrease in a residualmagnetic flux density Br. The preferred range of the Dy substitution (α)is 0.10-0.30.

Nd may further be partially substituted with light rare earth elementssuch as Ce, Pr and cerium didymium and heavy rare earth elements otherthan Dy. Ce serves to lower the sintering temperature of the alloy, andPr has an effect of improving intrinsic coercivity iHc. The heavy rareearth elements such as Tb and Ho produce R₂ Fe₁₄ B compounds whichgenerate a large anisotropic magnetic field.

In the permanent magnet alloy of the present invention, the inclusion ofCo is essentially critical, which increases the Curie temperature Tc ofthe alloy. Specifically, as the Co content increases, the Tc increasesbut the intrinsic coercivity iHc is lowered. Thus to ensure good thermalstability, both the increase of Tc by the addition of Co and theincrease of iHc by the addition of Dy should be utilized.

However, excess Co would lead to the decrease in a residual magneticflux density Br. Therefore, with respect to Co, "x" should be 0.01-0.4.Incidentally, when "x" is lower than 0.01, remarkable increase in theCurie temperature Tc cannot be achieved. The preferred range of "x" inconnection with the Co content is 0.04-0.2.

With respect to B, when "y" is lower than 0.04, high coercivity cannotbe obtained, and when "y" exceeds 0.20, there appear B-rich,non-magnetic phases which serve to lower the residual magnetic fluxdensity Br. Therefore, the range of "y" should be 0.04-0.20. Thepreferred range of "y" is 0.06-0.12.

When "a" is less than 4, the permanent magnet has a low residualmagnetic flux density, and when "a" exceeds 7.5, there appear phasesrich in Fe and Co in the alloy matrix, resulting in extreme decrease iniHc. Therefore, "a" should be 4-7.5. The preferred range of "a" is5-6.5.

With respect to an additive element M, Nb, Mo, Al, Si, P, Zr, Cu, V, W,Ti, Ni, Cr, Hf, Mn, Bi, Sn, Sb, Ge and their combinations can be used.The additive element M significantly improves the magnetic properties ofthe Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet, but it should be noted that thermalstability can be achieved by the substitution of both of Dy and Co evenin the absence of the additive element M. Among the above-listedelements, Al, Si, P and Nb are effective for remarkably increasing theintrinsic coercivity iHc of the permanent magnet. When "z" is largerthan 0.03, however, the permanent magnet suffers from a large decreasein the residual magnetic flux density Br. Therefore, "z" should be atmost 0.03 or less. The preferred range of "z" is 0.005-0.02.

The Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet according to the present invention may beprepared as follows:

First, component elements are mixed and melted in an inert gas or invacuum. Ferroboron may be used as a boron component. The rare earthelements are preferably last introduced into a crucible. The resultingingot is crushed, pulverized and milled into fine powders. The crushingand pulverization may be carried out by a stamp mill, a jaw crusher, abrown mill, a disc mill, etc., and the milling may be carried out by ajet mill, a vibration mill, a ball mill, etc. In either case, thepulverization is carried out in a non-oxidizing atmosphere to preventthe oxidation of magnet alloys. For this purpose, organic solvents andan inert gas are preferably used. The preferred organic solvents includevarious alcohols, hexane, trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, xylene,toluene, fluorine-containing solvents, paraffin solvents. An averagesize of the resulting fine powders is 3-5μm (FSSS).

The fine alloy powders thus prepared are compressed in a press in amagnetic field so that the resulting green body has its C-axis alignedin the same direction to show high magnetic anisotropy.

The green body is then sintered at 1050°-1150° C. for 30 minutes-3 hoursin an inert gas such as Ar and He, in hydrogen or in vacuum.

FIG. 1 schematically shows the heat treatment of the present invention.In this embodiment, the alloy is cooled to room temperature aftersintering for practical reasons. In this cooling step, a cooling speeddoes not substantially affect the intrinsic coercivity (iHc) of thefinal magnet. It is thus noted that the next heating step may beconducted directly after sintering without cooling down to roomtemperature.

The sintered alloy is then heated to 750°-1000° C. and kept at suchtemperature for 0.2-5 hours (first heating step). When the above heatingtemperature is lower than 750° C. or higher than 1000° C., the resultingmagnet does not have sufficiently high iHc.

After the above first heating step, the sintered alloy is slowly cooledto temperatures between room temperature and 600° C. at a cooling rateof 0.3°-5° C./min. When the cooling rate exceeds 5° C./min., anequilibrium phase necessary for making the subsequent second heatingstep or annealing effective cannot be obtained in the alloy, thus makingit impossible to achieve sufficiently high iHc. On the other hand, whenit is lower than 0.3° C./min., the heat treatment takes too much time,making the process less economical. The preferred cooling speed is0.6°-2.0° C./min. The slow cooling is preferably performed to roomtemperature, but it can be stopped at 600° C., and then the alloy can becooled down to room temperature relatively rapidly at the slight expenseof iHc. The end temperature of the slow cooling is preferably 400°C..-room temperature.

The alloy is then subjected to a second heating step or annealing at540°-640° C. for 0.2-3 hours. When the temperature of the second heatingstep is lower than 540° C. or higher than 640° C., irreversible loss offlux cannot be reduced even though high iHc is obtained.

After the second heating step or annealing, the alloy is rapidly cooledat a cooling rate of 20-400° C./min. The rapid cooling may be conductedin water, a silicone oil or an argon gas. To retain the equilibriumphase obtained by the annealing, the cooling should be as quick aspossible. However, when the cooling rate is higher than 400° C./min.,the alloy tends to have cracking, making it difficult to providecommercially valuable permanent magnets. On the other hand, when thecooling rate is lower than 20° C./min., there appears in the alloyduring the cooling process a new phase which is undesirable to iHc.

The present invention will be explained in further detail by thefollowing Examples.

EXAMPLE 1

An alloy having the composition of (Nd₀.8 Dy₀.2) (Fe₀.86 Co₀.06B₀.08)₅.5 was formed into an ingot by high-frequency melting. Theresulting alloy ingot was pulverized by a stamp mill and a disc mill to32 mesh or less, and then finely milled by a jet mill in a nitrogen gasto provide fine particles of 3.5-μm particle size (FSSS). The finepowders were pressed in a mangetic field of 15 KOe perpendicular to thecompressing direction. The compressure was 2 tons/cm². The resultinggreen bodies were sintered at 1100° C. for 2 hours in vacuo, and thencooled to room temperature in a furnace. A number of the resultingsintered alloys were heated at 900° C. for 2 hours (first heating step),and then slowly cooled at 1.5° C./min. to room temperature. Aftercooling, the second heating step or annealing was conducted at varioustemperatures between 460° C. and 640° C. for 1 hour on each sample. Thesamples were then rapidly cooled to room temperature at about 390 °C./min. Magnetic properties (residual magnetic flux density, coercivityand intrinsic coercivity) were measured. The results are shown in Table1

                  TABLE 1                                                         ______________________________________                                        Temp. of Second                     (BH)                                      Heating Step (°C.)                                                                 Br(G)   bHc(Oe)  iHc(Oe)                                                                              max(MGOe)                                 ______________________________________                                        460         11150   10700    21100  29.2                                      480         11150   10700    20500  29.0                                      500         11150   10700    21100  29.2                                      520         11100   10700    21100  29.1                                      540         11150   10700    20900  29.0                                      560         11000   10700    21700  28.8                                      580         10950   10500    22000  28.6                                      600         11150   10800    19800  29.5                                      620         11150   10800    16400  29.2                                      640         11150   10800    16900  29.4                                      ______________________________________                                    

It is apparent from Table 1 that the second heating step at 460°-640° C.provides iHc of 16,900-22,000 Oe, and that the iHc is reduced by thesecond heating step at 620° C. and 640° C.

These magnet samples were demagnetized by heating, cut so as to have apermeance coefficient Pc=2, and then magnetized again at 25KOe. Theywere kept at 200° C. for one hour to measure their irreversible lossesof flux. The results are shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows that theirreversible loss of flux does not necessarily depend on iHc but on thetemperatures of the second heating step or annealing. For instance, withthe annealing at 480° C., the iHc is 20500 Oe and the irreversible lossof flux is 66.5%, while with the annealing at 620° C., the iHc is 16,400Oe and the irreversible loss of flux is 17.6%. Therefore, in the case ofR-Fe-B magnets, high iHc does not necessarily lead to low irreversibleloss of flux unlike in the case of Sm-Co magnets.

Further, the annealing at 580°-610° C. makes it possible to reduce theirreversible loss of flux to lower than 10%. FIG. 3 shows the relationsbetween irreversible loss of flux (at Pc=2) and heating temperature withthe temperatures (T₂) of the second heating step varying from 460° C. to620° C.

When the second heating step temperature is 600° C., the irreversibleloss of flux at high temperatures is minimum. The relations betweenirreversible loss of flux and heating temperature at various permeancecoefficients Pc for samples subjected to the second heating step at 600°C. for one hour are shown in FIG. 4. The temperature for providing 10%irreversible loss of flux is 155° C. at Pc=0.58, 195° C. at Pc=1.2, 220°C. at Pc=2, 230° C. at Pc=2.36 and 235° C. at Pc=3.3. These data areapparently better than those given by Narashimhan (K.S.V.L. Narashimhanet al., Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Rare EarthMagnets and Their Application p.459 (1985)). Therefore, what isimportant for providing Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets having high thermalstability at temperatures of about 200° C. is a combination of a highCurie temperature due to the substitution of Co, a high intrinsiccoercivity iHc due to the substitution of Dy for part of Nd and thereduction of temperature variations of iHc by choosing a propertemperature for the second heating step. Incidentally, the sample testedhad a Curie temperature of 380° C.

EXAMPLE 2

Various alloys shown by the formula: (Nd₀.8 Dy₀.2)(Fe₀.92-x Co_(x)B₀.08)₅.5 wherein x=0.04-0.12 were melted, pulverized and formed in thesame manner as in Example 1.

Each of the resulting green bodies was sintered in vacuum at 1090° C.,and heated at 900° C. for 2 hours (first heating step), and then cooleddown to room temperature at a rate of 1° C./min. It was again heated inan Ar gas flow at 600° C. for 1 hour (second heating step) and rapidlycooled in water. Magnetic properties were measured on each sample. Theresults are shown in Table 2.

                  TABLE 2                                                         ______________________________________                                        X     Br(G)    bHc(Oe)   iHc(Oe) (BH)max(MGOe)                                ______________________________________                                        0.04  10400    10100     24000   26.0                                         0.06  10300    10100     28000   25.8                                         0.08  10400    10200     23500   26.3                                         0.10  10350    10000     18700   25.9                                         0.12  10350    10000     16900   25.8                                         0.14  10250     9900     15900   25.2                                         ______________________________________                                    

As is evident from Table 2, when the Co content (x) exceeds 0.06, thepermanent magnet tends to have lower iHc, and the increase of x from0.04 to 0.14 results in the decrease in Br by 150G. FIG. 5 shows therelations between irreversible loss of flux and heating temperature forthese samples. It is evident from FIG. 5 that the Co content (x) of 0.06provides the smallest irreversible loss of flux. Further, FIG. 6 showsthe relations between irreversible loss of flux (at 200° C. and Pc=2)and iHc (at room temperature) and the Co content (x). To ensure that theirreversible loss of flux at 200° C. and Pc=2 is 10% or less, the Cocontent (x) may be up to 0.11.

EXAMPLE 3

Various alloys shown by the formula: (Nd₀.6 Dy₀.4)(Fe₀.92-x Co_(x)B₀.08)₅.5 wherein x=0.06-0.20 were melted, pulverized and formed in thesame manner as in Example 1. The resulting green bodies were sintered at1090° C. for 2 hours and rapidly cooled in an Ar gas flow.

The resulting sintered bodies were again heated at 900° C. for 2 hours(first heating step) and cooled to room temperature at a cooling rate of1.5° C./min. They were further heated in an Ar atmosphere at 590° C. for1 hour (second heating step) and rapidly cooled in water. Magneticproperties were measured on each sample. The results are shown in Table3.

                  TABLE 3                                                         ______________________________________                                        X     Br(G)    bHc(Oe)   iHc(Oe) (BH)max(MGOe)                                ______________________________________                                        0.06  9500     9300      31000   22.0                                         0.08  9500     9300      29000   22.0                                         0.10  9600     9300      22200   22.0                                         0.12  9550     9300      17800   21.7                                         0.14  9500     9200      15000   21.7                                         0.16  9400     8900      12900   20.5                                         0.18  9300     8400       9500   17.5                                         0.20  9100     5900       6100   18.0                                         ______________________________________                                    

It is evident from Table 3 that even with the Dy content of 0.4, theincrease in Co leads to the decrese in iHc. FIG. 7 shows the relationsbetween irreversible loss of flux and heating temperature for thesemagnets. 10% or less of irreversible loss of flux (at 200° C. and Pc=2)was realized by the Co content (x) of 0.06, 0.08, 0.10 and 0.12.

EXAMPLE 4

An alloy having a composition of (Nd₀.7 Dy₀.3) (Fe₀.86 Co₀.06 B₀.08)₅.5was melted, pulverized and formed in the same manner as in Example 1.The resulting green body was sintered at 1090° C. in vacuum. Aftersintering, it was subjected to a first heating step of 900° C. for 2hours and cooled down to room temperature at a rate of 1° C./min. It wasthen subjected to a second heating step in the range of 640°-660° C. for0.5 hour. Magnetic properties were measured on each sample. The resultsare shown in Table 4.

                  TABLE 4                                                         ______________________________________                                        Temp. of Second                     (BH)                                      Heating Step (°C.)                                                                 Br(G)   bHc(Oe)  iHc(Oe)                                                                              max(MGOe)                                 ______________________________________                                        460         10400   10200    26500  26.0                                      480         10350   10100    26000  26.0                                      500         10350   10100    27300  25.9                                      520         10400   10100    28300  25.8                                      540         10300   10200    27500  25.9                                      560         10350   10100    28000  25.7                                      580         10400   10100    28500  25.9                                      600         10400   10100    28000  26.1                                      620         10350   10200    27500  26.0                                      640         10300   10100    26000  25.8                                      660         10400   10100    24800  25.3                                      ______________________________________                                    

Table 4 shows that the highest iHc is obtained by the second heatingstep at 580° C. FIG. 8 shows the relations between iHc and irreversibleloss of flux at 200° C. and Pc=2 and the temperatures of the secondheating step. It is evident from FIG. 8 that 10% or less of irreversibleloss of flux can be achieved by the second heating step at 540°-640° C.

EXAMPLE 5

An alloy having a composition of (Nd₀.8 Dy₀.2) (Fe₀.86 Co₀.06 B₀.08)₅.5was melted, pulverized, formed and sintered in the same manner as inExample 1. After sintering, it was heated at 900° C. for 2 hours andcontinuously cooled down to room temperature at a rate of 1° C./min. Thesecond heating step was carried out at 600° C. for 0.5 hour and cooledin water. Each sample was measured with respect to magnetic propertiesat various temperatures. The results are shown in Table 5 and FIG. 9.

                  TABLE 5                                                         ______________________________________                                                                            (BH)                                      Temp. (°C.)                                                                     Br(KG)   bHc(KOe)  iHc(KOe)                                                                              max(MGOe)                                 ______________________________________                                         20      11.2     10.7      23.0    30.0                                       60      10.8     10.3      18.2    28.1                                      100      10.4     9.8       13.2    25.9                                      140      9.9      9.2       10.4    23.5                                      180      9.5      6.0        6.0    21.1                                      220      8.8      3.5        3.5    15.2                                      260      7.3      1.0        1.0     5.0                                      ______________________________________                                    

As described above, the substitution of Dy and Co in proper amountscombined with a proper second heating step or annealing can provideNd-Fe-B permanent magnets with extremely improved thermal stability.

EXAMPLE 6

Alloys having (Nd₀.8 Dy₀.2)(Fe₀.06 B₀.08 M₀.01)₅.5 (M=Nb, Mo, Al, Si, P,Zr, Cu, V, W, Ti, Ni, Cr, Hf, Mn, Bi, Sn and Ge) were melted,pulverized, formed and sintered in the same manner as in Example 1.After sintering, each of them was heated at 900° C. for 2 hours andcontinuously cooled down to room temperature at a rate of 1 ° C./min.The second heating step was carried out at 600° C. for 0.5 hour andcooled in water. The magnetic properties and irreversible loss measuredafter exposure at 200° C. (Pc=2) are shown in Table 6.

                  TABLE 6                                                         ______________________________________                                        M    Br(G)   bHc(Oe)  iHc(Oe)                                                                              (BH)max(MGOe)                                                                            Irr. loss*                            ______________________________________                                        Nb   11100   10800    23100  28.9       1.3                                   Mo   11000   10600    24300  28.3       1.0                                   Al   10900   10400    25000  28.3       8.2                                   Si   11000   10500    21100  28.7       4.5                                   P    11000   10400    24300  28.8       2.3                                   Zr   10800   10300    22500  27.8       4.1                                   Cu   10950   10450    22500  28.4       5.6                                   V    11100   10550    23600  28.7       2.0                                   W    11000   10400    22600  28.6       3.3                                   Ti   10850   10400    21000  27.9       6.8                                   Ni   11150   10700    23200  28.9       4.5                                   Cr   10900   10400    20500  28.0       5.1                                   Hf   10850   10300    23000  27.9       4.9                                   Mn   10950   10550    21100  28.1       5.0                                   Bi   10850   10400    21300  27.5       5.8                                   Sn   10700   10200    20500  27.2       6.1                                   Ge   11050   10500    20900  28.9       4.1                                   ______________________________________                                         Note:                                                                         *Irreversible loss at 200° C. (Pc = 2)                            

The present invention has been explained in Examples, but is should benoted that it is not restricted thereto and that any modification can bemade unless it deviates from the scope of the present invention asdefined in the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of manufacturing a thermally stablepermanent magnet with reduced irreversible loss of flux and improvedintrinsic coercivity iHc of 15 KOe or more, the process comprising thesteps of:(a) selecting an alloy powder having the composition: (Nd₁₋αDyα) (Fe_(1-x-y-z) Co_(x) B_(y) M_(z))_(a) wherein M represents at leastone element selected from the group consisting of Nb, Mo, Al, Si, P, Zr,Cu, V, W, Ti, Ni, Cr, Hf, Mn, Bi, Sn, Sb and Ge, 0.01≦x≦0.4,0.04≦y≦0.20, O≦z≦0.03, 4≦a≦7.5 and 0.03≦α≦0.040, (b) compacting andsintering the alloy powder to form a body, (c) heating the sintered bodyat 750°-1000° C. for 0.2-5 hours, (d) slowly cooling it at a coolingrate of 0.3°-5° C./min to temperatures between room temperature and 600°C., (e) heating it at 540°-640° C. for 0.2-3 hours, and (f) rapidlycooling it at a cooling rate of 20°-400° C./min.
 2. The method in claim1 wherein said slowly cooling step utilizes a cooling rate of about0.6-2.0° C./min.